Friday, April 10, 2009

Camping and Coffee

Ah, it is Easter time. In San Antonio, that means that seven days ago, folks started lurking around my favorite park, Brackenridge Park. They begin by selecting the perfect bench, table, or picnic area. Then, they chain a grill, a spare tire, chairs, or coolers to the selected fixture. In the case of an open area, they use caution tape to rope it off. And that, somehow, gives one superior title to that little patch of the park for Easter weekend!

The City actually lifts the overnight curfew in select parks beginning Thursday night, and folks actually camp there. It fascinates me. I like to run through the extremely crowded park and ogle the people that, for generations, have decided it was fun to camp shoulder-to-shoulder in a city park. And then I ask them for food. Sometimes.

Don't get me wrong, I like this park a lot and run through it almost daily, but I can't quite fathom the marking of territory ritual (and respect thereof) and enjoyment of city camping. I think the homeless folks downtown share my bemusement with this activity.

And coffee. I drink quite a bit of the stuff, including before races and marathons - it may be what puts the ugly in my ugly race pics. I found a local coffee roaster less than a mile from the house - Brown Coffee Company. It costs a little more, but it's a one-man operation producing freshly roasted coffee. And Aaron Blanco, the proprietor, really cares about how his coffee tastes, how it was grown, and how it impacts the world (really, check out his website). For those of you in San Antonio, when ordering, you can use the code PICKUP to avoid the shipping charge and just enter the date/time you want to pick up the coffee in the comments section of the order form. The roastery is a little place in the Deco District off Fredericksburg Road.

No races this weekend (the parks are full of crazies, remember?), so just some OT for me. Next up: Fiesta Mission 10k next Saturday.